The Art Of Repeating Yourself

by Lily Bradic

It’s beneficial to repost things on social media. Guy Kawasaki has been saying it for a while. But, when you’re constantly warned of the dangers of spamming your audience with things they didn’t like the first time round, the prospect of re-distributing your content can seem pretty daunting. You don’t want to get it wrong — there are consequences, and the marketing pros won't let you forget it.

​What are the chances of all your followers being online at the same time? Pretty low — and they get lower with each new follower. With Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+, this isn’t really a big deal. Your content will still be waiting when your audience gets online.

But on Twitter, it’s perfectly reasonable to repost your stuff. People only see what’s in their stream when they’re online. Sure, they might scroll back 50 tweets, but any more than that and it’s too much work. You don’t want to make people work for your content unless it’s gated (and that “work” should only be typing their email address).

Need more convincing? Reposting your content allows you to reach more time zones, reach more followers, and ensure your content isn’t going to waste. Nobody will read your content if you don't let them know it's there.

So, without further ado, here’s how to repost the right way:

• Switch things up. Change the caption, or whatever message you’ve tweeted alongside the link. 
• Give it time. Six hours between reposts is good. Eight hours is even better. 
• Four reposts is enough. After that, you can safely assume that most people have seen your post. If they haven’t, it’s their loss.
• Keep a document (an Excel spread-sheet works) to keep track of your evergreen content. Repost this every three months. Hootsuite users can use this to schedule these tweets for the future (and everybody else can do it manually). 
• Rephrase your captions to attract different audiences. 
• Only repost YOUR content. Unless you’re getting paid, there’s no benefit to doing other people’s marketing for them.

Have any tips for reposting topical or evergreen content? How often do YOU re-share your stuff? Tell us about your experiences in the comments!

photo credit: Tiger Pixel via photopin cc